BI deports 2 minor Chinese fishermen after Hasa-Hasa Shoal arrest

PUERTO PRINCESA CITY: The two minor Chinese fishermen, who were intercepted in the vicinity of Hasa-Hasa Shoal within the country’s West Philippines Sea (WPS) territory with nine others, have been deported Tuesday night via China Airlines in Manila.

Still unidentified, the two minors were accompanied from this city to Manila by Bureau of Immigration (BI)-Palawan alien control officer Ferdinand Tendenilla at around 5:30 p.m.

Tendenilla explained to the Philippine News Agency (PNA) that it is part of the repatriation procedure that an adult accompanies or escorts the minors before they are deported back to their own country.

“We will bring them to Manila tonight because they have to be deported at around 10 p.m. Their flight, I think, is to Southern China going to Guangzhou, Guangdong, China. The order came from the Office of the Commissioner of the immigration bureau,” Tendenilla said.

Aside from him, the minors were also escorted by representatives from the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China — consul Duan Qiang, and first secretary and also consul Wu Yongxin.

Earlier, provincial prosecutor Allen Ross Rodriguez said the age of the two minors were determined after they sought the help of a dental expert from the Palawan Provincial Health Office (PHO).

Originally, four were claiming to be minors, but an examination of their gums and teeth revealed only two were minors. PNA